Adobe Acquires Typekit

At its MAX 2011 technology conference, Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced that it has acquired privately held Typekit Inc., a leader in the delivery of hosted, high-quality fonts for use on websites. Available as a subscription-based cloud service, Typekit’s vast font library gives designers and developers creative license to deliver beautiful type that enhances the Web experience. Today, more than 250,000 customers use Typekit, including some of the largest sites on the Web, such as The New York Times, Condé Nast, IGN and many others.

Typekit fonts will be offered as a standalone service and over time as part of Adobe Creative Cloud. A major new initiative from the company, Adobe Creative Cloud was announced – along with six Adobe Touch Apps for Android and iOS tablet devices – by Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer of Adobe, during his keynote presentation at MAX this morning (see separate press releases).

“Typography is a fundamental design element and something that designers want to be more creative with on websites – especially as these websites now need to be viewed on mobile devices,” said Lea Hickman, vice president, Product Management, Adobe. “Working closely with type foundries, the Typekit team has delivered an outstanding service, empowering designers to present the power of the printed word in new ways – online and on devices.”

Typekit is a fast, easy and reliable way to integrate real fonts into websites and ensure fonts are displayed consistently across all modern browsers. It includes a library of hundreds of fonts from dozens of foundries, all licensed for legal use on the Web. Typekit’s product offerings address a full range of customers, from individuals and small to medium-sized businesses to enterprises and platform partners such as Wordpress, Behance and About.me that offer Typekit-powered font menus. Typekit technology is also expected to provide new distribution mechanisms for its foundry partners, including the growing collection of Adobe Web Fonts, which are selected from Adobe's own library of classic typefaces and optimized for quality on all current Web browsers.

“By joining Adobe, we are now an integral part of the worldwide leader in creative software, and as Adobe moves aggressively into cloud-based services, this will accelerate our vision of reinventing the look and feel of Web through creative and beautiful fonts,” said Jeffrey Veen, chief executive officer, Typekit. “This is an exciting time to be designing for the Web. As millions of new users come online via tablets and smartphones, capturing their attention via high-impact typography has never been more relevant.”